Cognitive Learning

We use the consciousness of our mind to learn. Learning begins with the perception of an object of knowledge by an organ of cognition in the waking state when the consciousness of the mind is connected with the specific organ. We cannot learn in the state of sound sleep, because our mind is not conscious, and in dream sleep because our organs of perception are inactive. 

In the classroom, listening to the teachers is a learning process. Listening leads to learning, the better the listening skill, the better the learning skill. Besides having good ears, the quality of listening depends upon the attention one pays to use them. In reading a book, we use the eyes; to learn about food, we use the tongue; to learn about flavours, we use the nose; and to learn about textures, we use the touch. The more attention we use in hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and touching, the better and the clearer the resulting learning. Learning with our organs of perception is called cognitive learning.

There is a problem with the consciousness of our mind in the waking state. Our mind is in a constant state of distraction and we are largely powerless in preventing them. Its random distractions prevent the consciousness of our mind from paying the requisite amount of attention to what we hear, see, smell, taste, or touch. As a result, the quality of the resulting understanding is not assured. In most cases, we have to supplement cognitive learning with other ways of knowing.

There is another problem with learning with the use of our organs of perception. This problem is related to the limitedness of their sensitivity. Our ears, even in a perfect state of health, cannot hear all sounds, eyes cannot envision tiny or very large objects, the nose cannot smell all smells, the skin cannot accurately sense all textures, and the tongue cannot adequately taste all edible objects. We then need to allow for this lack of sensitivity on the part of our organs of perception.